-Quote by a minister I met at a gas station. I actually laughed out loud when he said it...then realized he wasn't totally kidding. But he’s a very good man who’s spending his life trying to bring people to Christ. We were buddies by the end of the chat. Unfortunately...I’m still a heathen. :)
THE ELDERS
No, not as in the missionaries…as in a family. This is the one I told you about where we found them tracting and she’s a member of the Church (but hasn’t gone for several years). So we were teaching them and the husband is pretty not interested at this time but it was amazing to watch the wife as we taught. She was so precious. She was getting really into it. You could see all the things she learned growing up coming back to her. She would get really excited when we were teaching something and if her husband wasn’t getting what we were saying she’d jump in and excitedly explain all about what the Holy Ghost feels like or how the Book of Mormon is the testimony of all these different prophets. At the end, he was overloaded and she was on fire. He was just kinda sitting there stunned from everything we’d told him about and she was all ready to get back to church. She slaps him hard in the leg and shouts excitedly, “Don’t you want to be sealed?!?” He didn’t know quite what to think of that. :) But it was so dang cool to watch it come back to her and to see her desire to be sealed (or united) for time and all eternity in a temple of the Lord. I love that family. They made it to church on Sunday and hopefully they’ll make it again! :)
AMAZING MEMBERS
I’m continually meeting people who are such good examples and I have to store it away in my brain so I can be like that when I’m a “regular” person again. :) This time it was a 16-yr old boy—Sammy Boice. We were eating dinner there and shared a thought from Alma 26 about bringing people from the darkness of the adversary into the marvelous light of God. It talks about how they will then be His and will be in His hands and will not be beaten down but the storms and fierce winds of the adversary (really cool chapter—read it). We finish the whole thing and he just says quietly, “whoa.” Then we were talking about who they’d like us to go visit. (This is something that’s often intimidating as members of the Church to have the missionaries go and visit your friends because even though you want so badly for them to hear these things and have these blessings, it’s easy to worry about offending them or silly things like that.) Anyway, Sammy’s response was, “if you could visit my friend Brian over there and Jenny two doors down, that’d be REALLY cool.” Wow. Who’s that stoked about the missionaries visiting their friends. We tend to be so nervous and have such a lack of faith. This kid blew me away. I hope to always have that kind of excitement to share the gospel.
ANGIE
We met a really cool lady tracting. We asked her what she knew about the Book of Mormon and she said, “not much, all I know is it’s another testament of Jesus Christ.” Ha! A+. Nicely done. She said she’s seen the commercials. She was way cool. She talked about how God’s really been leading her lately and how she just recently came to understand that she can pray specifically about things she needs (instead of just assuming the Lord already knows) and how that’s changed things. We told her all about the Book of Mormon and a prophet today and praying to know if it’s true. She was totally getting it. Then we asked her that when the Lord tells her these things are true, will she be baptized. She said a very bold “Yes!” Usually when you initially discuss baptism, they have concerns like (in the South anyway) “but I’ve already been baptized” so you work to resolve their concerns and teach them why it’s so important. But when she answered with her confident “yes” we were both just like, “uh…well…great!” Then she’s like “if that’s what God wants me to do, how stupid would I be not to?” Man, if only we all had that attitude. Anyway, we should be seeing her tomorrow. She’s a champ.
Alrighty, things are going well. We’re assuming I’ll stay in Canton til the end of my time here. Transfers are March 5 though and you never know. But I love it here and the people. Keep praying for the missionary efforts around the world and helping in whatever ways the Lord would have you in your own areas of influence because that’s the inspired pattern of how missionary work is to be.
Thanks for all the letters/emails/updates.
Catch you later!
--Sis C
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
"This is better than food....It's the food you don't never get full of...."
Quote from Lavern in reference to the word of God. :)
I’M A REAL MISSIONARY!
So I’m happy to announce that within a matter of 24 hours I arrived at my ½-way mark and also got bit by a dog!!!! :) Yes! I’m legit now! :) It was the funniest thing. We went to drop by this house to meet this family in the ward nobody knew. The doormat said—in this cutesy font—“The dog don’t take kindly to strangers.” We laughed at the cute little doormat and proceeded to knock on the door. Have I mentioned that EVERYONE owns dogs in GA? No joke. Typically multiple dogs. So we think little of it. We were invited in by a fairly incapacitated elderly couple. There were 3 yippy dogs and I squatted down to help them get to know me and to calm them down, just as the older lady was slowly saying, “now that one bites…” Haha! Too late. He totally got me in the wrist and the leg. Blood, bruising, and everything. He even made a hole in Sis. B’s skirt I was borrowing. It was amazing. He had these creepy little fangs. Anyway, so that couple wasn’t quite coherent enough to make them worry about it so we just waited until we got to the next house we were going to so I could let the mom there nurse me back to health and tell me how to tell if the dog gives me some weird disease. It was hilarious.
FRIGHT OR FLIGHT
So two stories:We were tracting this sketchy curvy road with no sidewalk (sidewalks are exceptionally rare here) and just as we were crossing, Sis. B thought a car was coming and started scampering across the road. I then thought a car was coming too but decided it was quicker to turn back so I started running the other way. We did this crazy little do-see-do type thing in the middle of the road and would’ve been in big trouble if there actually had been a car cause we were running into each other more than away from anything. Resulted in hysterical, doubled-over laughter in the middle of the street. Good times.
Story 2: The winter has been very mild and of course we’re still in great need of rain. One night there were warnings of severe storms and we were supposed to be making our way to a house that was really far and up windy, steep roads (like more of GA). It was Sundays and on Sundays we have “Spartan Sundays” which means we don’t go back to the apt for meals or anything. We stay out all day and everywhere we go is based around teaching and finding so we also don’t go to member’s houses. It’s really neat. So the rain started POURING down just as we were heading to the appt. and it was the same night there were tornado warnings. We could’ve gone back home to hide out until the weather got better but we really didn’t feel like that was what we were supposed to do. It was really imp to us that we get to the appt so we said a prayer that the rain would let up just enough for us to be able to see and drive there safely or that we would know through the Spirit if we weren’t supposed to drive up there. Before the prayer was over the rain lightened just enough and for the rest of the night, the roads were safe. Just a little example of how the Lord looks over us. :) (Of course, that was the same night as the dog bite, but I’ll take the blame for that one!)
MELANIE
Another story about her just cause she’s amazing. We’ve been playing phone tag lately and the last thing we heard from her was a message saying she had some pretty big concerns so call her back. We were worried, naturally, because more often than not the people we teach here come into contact with very false information that leads them away from the Church. So we were praying hard that we’d get the opportunity to resolve her concern. We finally got a hold of her last night and she just had a concern about something that can so easily be explained through understanding the Atonement of Jesus Christ and that it’s meant to provide salvation to ALL men. She asked us for scriptures she could look up that would help her understand what she was worried about and she told us she wanted to meet with us two nights in a row so she could make sure she understood and would have time to ask us all her questions. What a blessing! She’s so dang cool! I was so impressed she knew to go to the scriptures and to us. She’s making leaps and bounds! I’m so excited for her.
VALENTINE’S DAY—MISSIONARY STYLE
So this V-day Melanie invited us to some fancy-schmancy dinner at the place she worked. We went cause we were hoping to be able to get to know her husband more. Turns out she and John didn’t intend on sitting with us and we were almost eating by ourselves (a big waste of time from a missionary perspective) but we invited this other random couple at a table next to us to join us. So we ended up eating with complete strangers and discussing missions and the gospel of Jesus Christ over fine dining. It was so random and cool. I was grateful that the Lord provided us with an awesome teaching experience.
SMALL MIRACLES
All-in-all it’s going great. I love to see the amazing miracles the Lord puts in our path every day. There’s always something where it times out just perfectly so we can catch someone for the 5 minutes that they’re home all day or that we can find them in the first place. Our friend who we’ve been teaching is going through a divorce and moved out of her house. All we knew was she moved somewhere in this subdivision of 1000 houses. No joke. It’s huge. So a few days later we decided to look up some old investigators and see if they were interested in resuming the discussions. We went to this house to see if they still lived there and we ended up talking to this way cool guy who had just moved in with his girlfriend and her best friend. And guess who the best friend was!!! That’s right! Our friend April who we’d lost contact with. What are the odds? I love it!Yeah, so things are going great. Only 2 months left here. Crazy. Transfers and March 5 and then I’ll know if I’ll spend my full 6 months in Canton or if I’ll go somewhere new for 6 weeks. Crazy.
Alrighty, thanks for everything, once again. Always keep making goals and striving to be better. Any time we are striving to improve, we are drawing closer to the Lord.
--sis c
I’M A REAL MISSIONARY!
So I’m happy to announce that within a matter of 24 hours I arrived at my ½-way mark and also got bit by a dog!!!! :) Yes! I’m legit now! :) It was the funniest thing. We went to drop by this house to meet this family in the ward nobody knew. The doormat said—in this cutesy font—“The dog don’t take kindly to strangers.” We laughed at the cute little doormat and proceeded to knock on the door. Have I mentioned that EVERYONE owns dogs in GA? No joke. Typically multiple dogs. So we think little of it. We were invited in by a fairly incapacitated elderly couple. There were 3 yippy dogs and I squatted down to help them get to know me and to calm them down, just as the older lady was slowly saying, “now that one bites…” Haha! Too late. He totally got me in the wrist and the leg. Blood, bruising, and everything. He even made a hole in Sis. B’s skirt I was borrowing. It was amazing. He had these creepy little fangs. Anyway, so that couple wasn’t quite coherent enough to make them worry about it so we just waited until we got to the next house we were going to so I could let the mom there nurse me back to health and tell me how to tell if the dog gives me some weird disease. It was hilarious.
FRIGHT OR FLIGHT
So two stories:We were tracting this sketchy curvy road with no sidewalk (sidewalks are exceptionally rare here) and just as we were crossing, Sis. B thought a car was coming and started scampering across the road. I then thought a car was coming too but decided it was quicker to turn back so I started running the other way. We did this crazy little do-see-do type thing in the middle of the road and would’ve been in big trouble if there actually had been a car cause we were running into each other more than away from anything. Resulted in hysterical, doubled-over laughter in the middle of the street. Good times.
Story 2: The winter has been very mild and of course we’re still in great need of rain. One night there were warnings of severe storms and we were supposed to be making our way to a house that was really far and up windy, steep roads (like more of GA). It was Sundays and on Sundays we have “Spartan Sundays” which means we don’t go back to the apt for meals or anything. We stay out all day and everywhere we go is based around teaching and finding so we also don’t go to member’s houses. It’s really neat. So the rain started POURING down just as we were heading to the appt. and it was the same night there were tornado warnings. We could’ve gone back home to hide out until the weather got better but we really didn’t feel like that was what we were supposed to do. It was really imp to us that we get to the appt so we said a prayer that the rain would let up just enough for us to be able to see and drive there safely or that we would know through the Spirit if we weren’t supposed to drive up there. Before the prayer was over the rain lightened just enough and for the rest of the night, the roads were safe. Just a little example of how the Lord looks over us. :) (Of course, that was the same night as the dog bite, but I’ll take the blame for that one!)
MELANIE
Another story about her just cause she’s amazing. We’ve been playing phone tag lately and the last thing we heard from her was a message saying she had some pretty big concerns so call her back. We were worried, naturally, because more often than not the people we teach here come into contact with very false information that leads them away from the Church. So we were praying hard that we’d get the opportunity to resolve her concern. We finally got a hold of her last night and she just had a concern about something that can so easily be explained through understanding the Atonement of Jesus Christ and that it’s meant to provide salvation to ALL men. She asked us for scriptures she could look up that would help her understand what she was worried about and she told us she wanted to meet with us two nights in a row so she could make sure she understood and would have time to ask us all her questions. What a blessing! She’s so dang cool! I was so impressed she knew to go to the scriptures and to us. She’s making leaps and bounds! I’m so excited for her.
VALENTINE’S DAY—MISSIONARY STYLE
So this V-day Melanie invited us to some fancy-schmancy dinner at the place she worked. We went cause we were hoping to be able to get to know her husband more. Turns out she and John didn’t intend on sitting with us and we were almost eating by ourselves (a big waste of time from a missionary perspective) but we invited this other random couple at a table next to us to join us. So we ended up eating with complete strangers and discussing missions and the gospel of Jesus Christ over fine dining. It was so random and cool. I was grateful that the Lord provided us with an awesome teaching experience.
SMALL MIRACLES
All-in-all it’s going great. I love to see the amazing miracles the Lord puts in our path every day. There’s always something where it times out just perfectly so we can catch someone for the 5 minutes that they’re home all day or that we can find them in the first place. Our friend who we’ve been teaching is going through a divorce and moved out of her house. All we knew was she moved somewhere in this subdivision of 1000 houses. No joke. It’s huge. So a few days later we decided to look up some old investigators and see if they were interested in resuming the discussions. We went to this house to see if they still lived there and we ended up talking to this way cool guy who had just moved in with his girlfriend and her best friend. And guess who the best friend was!!! That’s right! Our friend April who we’d lost contact with. What are the odds? I love it!Yeah, so things are going great. Only 2 months left here. Crazy. Transfers and March 5 and then I’ll know if I’ll spend my full 6 months in Canton or if I’ll go somewhere new for 6 weeks. Crazy.
Alrighty, thanks for everything, once again. Always keep making goals and striving to be better. Any time we are striving to improve, we are drawing closer to the Lord.
--sis c
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Nothing happens overnight. If it did, it wouldn't have taken 6 days for Christ to make the earth.
Subj: From Randall, one of the inmates we’re teaching. So profound. I know that he’s right. Change doesn’t happen overnight. I think it’s cool to think of all of the miraculous things that God COULD make happen but He loves us enough to have us work for them.Ok, not much time to write…So we’ve had lots of little miracles and of course a few disappointments to go along with it.
LOST AND FOUND
One cool thing…we prayed about where to go tracting and decided to go to one part of one cul-de-sac. (In a subdivision that has over 1000 houses in it. Yes. We get lost every time we go in there. I’ll be navigating and say, “now take your sixth left, follow by your third right, and then your forth left.” And the street signs are black. Yes, black. Anyway…) So we were tracting and there were all these painters painting a house and I was worried cause I didn’t know how we’d decide which painter to talk to or whatever. Then by the time we got to the house there was a lady outside supervising who I thought was like the head painter lady. Turns out she was the owner of the house (who we would’ve assumed didn’t even live there) but she’d just come out long enough to check her mail. She’d moved in a couple of years ago from LV. I figured she’d know who Mormons were because she lived out west. We introduced ourselves and I said “we’re members of The Church of Jesus Christ…” and she said, “I am too!” She’s LDS and her husband’s not. She’d never tried to find a ward out here though cause she just figured there wasn’t one close by in the South. I informed her that yes there definitely was and that about a third of them lived in her subdivision. She was really excited about it.The Lord has blessed us with a lot of part-member families we’ve been finding. At zone conference Elder Zwick talked a lot about that and how imperative it is that we help them realize all of the blessings that the Lord wants to give them and since then, we’ve found many!
MELANIE
Melanie is moving along so very well. She always tells us she needs to take it slow and initially she was telling us how she doesn’t like the missionaries to call or check up on her every day or every couple days or whatever so we’ve been very aware of that. (Usually we try to touch base often because they come up against opposition often too). Since we’ve started teaching her she’s been calling US instead to basically bear her testimony to us over the phone. It’s awesome. She’s trying to stop smoking and she told us yesterday that she took a 20-min break at work and instead of going to smoke, she went and read her scriptures. She also said she emailed her brother-in-law who’s on a mission and told him all about how she knows in her heart that everything the missionaries are teaching her is true. She said she told him that cause she hoped it would energize him and remind him not to give up on anyone. What the?! Precious! We love her! Lots of prayers are being answered right now for that family. :)
Not much else to report. One of my new favorite scriptures though, and I’ll leave it with you in light of V-day…(if I’ve already shared it in an email, oh well. It’s still valid. :) )2 Nephi 26:24“He doeth not anything save it be for the benefit of the world; for he loveth the world, even that he layeth down his own life that he may draw all men unto him. Wherefore, he commandeth none that they shall not partake of his salvation.”I leave you with my testimony that I know that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world. I know that He loves each of us with an incomprehensible love. Because of this love, He gave us commandments and a place on earth where we would experience opposition and have to prove ourselves worthy. It is this same love, though, that provides the way back and the means by which we can have peace and strength daily and for eternity.The best way you can show you appreciate this love is by sharing it with others.
I love you all!
sis c
LOST AND FOUND
One cool thing…we prayed about where to go tracting and decided to go to one part of one cul-de-sac. (In a subdivision that has over 1000 houses in it. Yes. We get lost every time we go in there. I’ll be navigating and say, “now take your sixth left, follow by your third right, and then your forth left.” And the street signs are black. Yes, black. Anyway…) So we were tracting and there were all these painters painting a house and I was worried cause I didn’t know how we’d decide which painter to talk to or whatever. Then by the time we got to the house there was a lady outside supervising who I thought was like the head painter lady. Turns out she was the owner of the house (who we would’ve assumed didn’t even live there) but she’d just come out long enough to check her mail. She’d moved in a couple of years ago from LV. I figured she’d know who Mormons were because she lived out west. We introduced ourselves and I said “we’re members of The Church of Jesus Christ…” and she said, “I am too!” She’s LDS and her husband’s not. She’d never tried to find a ward out here though cause she just figured there wasn’t one close by in the South. I informed her that yes there definitely was and that about a third of them lived in her subdivision. She was really excited about it.The Lord has blessed us with a lot of part-member families we’ve been finding. At zone conference Elder Zwick talked a lot about that and how imperative it is that we help them realize all of the blessings that the Lord wants to give them and since then, we’ve found many!
MELANIE
Melanie is moving along so very well. She always tells us she needs to take it slow and initially she was telling us how she doesn’t like the missionaries to call or check up on her every day or every couple days or whatever so we’ve been very aware of that. (Usually we try to touch base often because they come up against opposition often too). Since we’ve started teaching her she’s been calling US instead to basically bear her testimony to us over the phone. It’s awesome. She’s trying to stop smoking and she told us yesterday that she took a 20-min break at work and instead of going to smoke, she went and read her scriptures. She also said she emailed her brother-in-law who’s on a mission and told him all about how she knows in her heart that everything the missionaries are teaching her is true. She said she told him that cause she hoped it would energize him and remind him not to give up on anyone. What the?! Precious! We love her! Lots of prayers are being answered right now for that family. :)
Not much else to report. One of my new favorite scriptures though, and I’ll leave it with you in light of V-day…(if I’ve already shared it in an email, oh well. It’s still valid. :) )2 Nephi 26:24“He doeth not anything save it be for the benefit of the world; for he loveth the world, even that he layeth down his own life that he may draw all men unto him. Wherefore, he commandeth none that they shall not partake of his salvation.”I leave you with my testimony that I know that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world. I know that He loves each of us with an incomprehensible love. Because of this love, He gave us commandments and a place on earth where we would experience opposition and have to prove ourselves worthy. It is this same love, though, that provides the way back and the means by which we can have peace and strength daily and for eternity.The best way you can show you appreciate this love is by sharing it with others.
I love you all!
sis c
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